(Finance) – The European Commission has selected 107 projects in the transport infrastructure sector to receive over 6 billion euros of EU grants from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the EU’s instrument for strategic investments in transport infrastructure. More than 80% of the funding will support projects building a more efficient, greener and smarter network of railways, inland waterways and maritime routes along the trans-European transport network (TEN-T).
Even the main ones cross-border rail connections along the TEN-T core network have been prioritized for funding. Including, in particular, the Brenner Base Tunnel (connecting Italy and Austria), Rail Baltica (connecting the three Baltic states and Poland with the rest of Europe), as well as the cross-border section between Germany and the Netherlands (Emmerich-Oberhausen).
THE seaports of Ireland, Greece, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Poland will receive funding for the development of shore power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from berthed vessels.
To help make transportation for inland waterways future-proof, the infrastructure along the Seine-Scheldt cross-border waterways between France and Belgium will be modernised. Inland ports on the Danube and Rhine, such as Vienna and Andernach, will also benefit from a modernization.
To further increase the safety and interoperability of EU rail transport, the European traffic management system railway (ERTMS) will be installed on trains and railway lines in Czechia, Denmark, Germany, France, Austria and Slovakia.
“Today we are allocating €6.2 billion to projects across Europe that will bring us closer to completing the Trans-European Transport Network, TEN-T, the backbone of the EU economy,” he commented. Adina Valean, Commissioner for Transport – I am particularly pleased that EUR 250 million will improve cross-border connections between Ukraine, Moldova and their EU neighbors Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. These projects will facilitate the transportation of goods between the EU and Ukraine, strengthening solidarity lanes.”
(Photo: Photo by László Glatz on Unsplash)